DAVID NILSSON ANNOUNCED AS TEAM AUSTRALIA MANAGER

David ‘Dingo’ Nilsson has undoubtedly had one of the most influential baseball careers in Australia. Nilsson was the first Major League Baseball All-Star player to come out of Australia during his time playing for the Milwaukee Brewers. Nilsson is the current Head Coach of the Brisbane Bandits and has been since 2014; during his time as Head Coach he has led the Bandits to three consecutive championship titles. David Nilsson was announced as the fulltime High Performance Manager at Baseball Queensland in July of 2017 and has built successful foundations within this program.

Chief Executive Officer for Baseball Queensland, Paul Gonzalez comments, “I have had the honour of competing on the diamond with David Nilsson and have watched him contribute to the game as, arguably, the greatest Australian player to ever compete in this game. Since David’s appointment as the High Performance Manager, he has helped restructure the programs into five tiers ensuring we not only capture our high performance athletes but we continue meeting the needs of all our athletes. The program’s measurables speak for themselves, with 9 players on the National Team in 2018 as well as three Claxton Shields in the ABL across 2016, 2017,2018. He has 15 players committed to colleges within the Junior Elite Program as well as made Australian history by including the first female coach in Australian Baseball League.  David’s leadership has given Baseball Queensland the ability to grow the sport as well as build foundations for our people.”

Baseball Queensland sat down with David to get his comments on this momentous achievement.

David, it really is an incredible time to be a Queenslander, you’ve just won ‘Coach of the Year’ along with the ‘Queensland Greats Award’, what does it mean to you to represent Australia as the Manager of Team Australia?

“I grew up in Brisbane, Queensland, so you have to grow up here to understand what that really means, I’m a proud Queenslander and without the support of my family and all the other Queenslanders, whether they be players, coaches or staff, there is no way that I would be in this position and it makes it even more special that I am a Queenslander because the public understand what that means.”

Baseball Queensland would like to congratulate David on this wonderful achievement.

Written by Liv Wilson